Realizations
by I 4 2 write
Summary: Ghost in the machines AU. What if Fry had chosen to save both the human and the robot, at a cost? Now he's stuck in a coma, leaving behind a very secretly worried Bender and crew. Fry and Bender friendship. (adopted from TheSufferingAuthor)
1. Chapter 1

****AU: This was written originally by TheSufferingAuthor. She put it up for adoption and we spoke later about it. This chapter is her work. Future chapters are mine. I give her full credit for her idea and this is done completely with her permission.****

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Fry was idly drumming his fingers on the round conference table, bored out of his mind waiting for the fifteen minutes to run out so 'their insurance could be reinstated' whatever that was even supposed to mean. Sighing he looked around at everyone else, noting that they also seemed to be bored much like himself. Catching a glimpse at Bender, who was sitting across from him with his hands behind his head and foot cups propped up on the the table, Fry started thinking about his robot friend and some of their recent adventures.

The time Bender had to go into hiding from the robot mafia came to the forefront of Fry's mind, remembering how terrified and depressed he felt when they all thought Bender was successfully killed. Thinking more about that experience as deeply as he could, Fry started to feel guilt bubble up inside him as he thought of the robot who was actually killed. Billy West, which he still thought was a stupid name, was murdered by the youngest daughter of the robot mafia's boss because she mistook him for Bender, and the planet express crew were the ones who had led her right to him in the first place. Fry started to feel even more guilt when he remembered how he had cheered alongside his friends when it was discovered Bender wasn't actually killed, not even giving the poor 'bot a second thought at all. He also recalled that Billy had a family, leaving his child fatherless and wife widowed, just like a situation that could also happen to humans. Maybe he could send them a fruit basket?

Fry then remembered a lot of moments where he has seen robots display human like qualities, like happiness, sadness, and anger, heck he could even remember seeing robots fall in love, he also realized that robots each have their own different personalities too. Maybe humans and robots aren't so different as he thought before? His friendship with Bender was a prime example of that.

That was when Fry realized something that would change the course of the future... Even as cheesy and as sappy as it sounded, that all life really is precious even if it is artificial, robotic, mutant, alien, human or something else entirely. His surprisingly long train of thought was ruined when Amy abruptly stood up, knocking her chair over with a clatter, and pointed out the window.

"A GIANT SAUSAGE!"

Which elicited a scream of horror from Fry and the others, except Hermes who stood up and waved his folder around,"Oh God, no! Get out of here, you horrific sausage!," He yelled with a mix of fright and urgency.

That was when Leela seemed to remember something and stopped screaming,"Wait! Isn't today the parade? It's just a giant balloon!" She realized out loud, but that didn't comfort Fry in the slightest.

"Giant balloon?" Fry questioned, he then continued to scream in terror.

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Some time later the planet express crew had joined the crowded sidewalks to watch the parade, having managed to push to the front for a better view. Fry was still cowering, afraid of the approaching sausage shaped balloon and what havoc it could impose on him and his friends, but his thoughts were once again halted when he felt himself being lifted onto someone's shoulders. Craning his neck down, Fry was met by his best friend's eyes, who then proceeded to hand him a ice cream cone and a cold drink, which he had probably stolen from a nearby stand, but even so Fry still accepted the items with a small grateful smile. Looking at the big sausage balloon, Fry took a sip from his drink, his fears slowly starting to loose hold of his mind.

"See, buddy? It's not so scary," Bender said comfortingly, holding on to Fry's legs to prevent the orange haired man child from falling off his perch. "I feel better now," Fry whimpered with another small smile, Bender's actions helping solidify his newfound way of seeing robots and other life.

Continuing to watch the parade, Fry watched as a group of people dressed in leprechaun like costumes passed by, two of them holding up a green sign with three leafed clovers on it reading 'St. Patrick's Day Parade'. Then came by a group of people dressed as a dragon holding up a red decorative Chinese sign that read 'Chinese New Year Parade'. After that came a group of six blue aliens who were circling the street in their spaceships.

"Why is so many different parades smooshed together?" Fry asked while taking a bite from his ice cream. "It's the Parade Day parade," Leela answered simply, gesturing with her hands for emphasis and ignoring Fry's bad grammar.

"What's Parade Day?" Fry inquired, wanting to know what it was all about. "It used to be that every group in New New York wanted their own parade," gaining a nostalgic tone to his voice the professor continued speaking,"Why when I was a boy, we had a parade every day... Those were dark times."

"Now we just combine them all into one big Parade Day parade and get it over with," Leela finished explaining. Fry nodded, that made sense to him.

"Hey, look! A fog is rolling in," Dr. Zoidberg exclaimed, pointing a claw to said fog. "No, that's just the Jamaican pride float," Hermes corrected the red lobster, the crew also noticing the green float with a sign that read 'JAMAICAN PRIDE' on its side with a thick smoke hiding whatever was actually happening on top of the float from the public.

"Looks like it's speeding up," Amy observed pointing at the float. "Oh, no! It's within munching distance of the Doritos float!" Hermes shouted with panic.

And indeed it was, the float was gaining on to the Doritos float, which was just a float of a giant mechanical hand repeatedly dipping a giant Dorito into a large cup of sauce. The Jamaican pride float rammed into the Dorito float, causing the hand to to toss the giant Dorito away. The Dorito flies off cutting three street lamps in its wake, until it reached the 'Earthican Pride' float that was being run by Zapp Brannigan, the float had a statue depicting Zap holding up the planet earth with his hands.

The Dorito cuts off the depiction of Zapp's wrists causing the giant globe to fall off, and forcing the incompetent space captain to jump off his float to avoid being crushed by the globe. The globe starts rolling down the street, straight towards a unsuspecting man and manbot who were talking about something animatedly.

"Oh, no! It's heading right for those two nerds!" Leela shouted with alarm. It seemed that the manbot was too preoccupied with fawning over the human man's shirt to notice the approaching danger. Fry knew at that moment that he had to do something to save them, jumping off Bender's shoulders and dropping his food items to the ground he ran as fast as he could, originally Fry thought of just saving the human, but he shook of that thought when he remembered his earlier realization. Spreading his arms wide, so he could push both the human and the robot to safety, Fry jumped, the force behind it was enough to push both of them out of harms way.

Sadly the same could not be said for Fry, the extra force needed to push two people instead of just one caused Fry to fall and smack his head on the concrete and put him straight into the path of the globe instead. The adrenaline wore off and all Fry could do was brace himself for more pain.

The globe rammed into his side with a sickening crunch, Fry's body served to stop the globe from rolling any further, leaving him wedged underneath it. The pain finally kicked in and Fry let out the most painful ear shattering scream anyone has ever heard.

"FRY!" 


	2. Chapter 2

Bender screamed Fry's name and rushed to his best friend's side. With strength far beyond any human, the robot was able to push the globe off Fry. He almost wished he had left it in place rather than see his friend's broken body. There wasn't much of Fry that wasn't crushed. It would take a miracle if he survived. Bender knelt down beside the human, taking the hand that had stuck out uninjured from the globe.

"Come on, Fry, you're gonna be fine!" He looked in desperation at the Professor and Zoidberg. "Right? RIGHT? You can clone any part he needs, or whatever else it takes, can't you?"

Everyone looked at him, and he saw little hope in their eyes. This couldn't be. Fry could not be too injured to save. Leela was standing looking down on him, tears streaming from her single eye. Zoidberg started working to stabilize him, but that only increased Bender's worry. Bender tried to stop him, but Hermes grabbed his shoulder.

"As bad as Fry is now, Mon, he can only help," he said. Bender reluctantly let him work. At lest it was something being done.

Somehow, Dr. Zoidberg was able to keep Fry's heart pumping, although he wasn't exactly sure where a human's heart was. Amazingly, Fry was still alive when they reached Dr. Cahil. Everyone was forced to wait outside the operating room while Fry was in surgery. Leela and Bender both kept pacing the floor while the others sat in silence. Bender stopped pacing long enough for Leela to touch his shoulder, making him jump. She looked at him with concern, knowing how much Fry meant to him. The robot immediately tried to hide his feelings.

"Ah what are we all so worried about Fry for, anyway? If he dies it isn't like the Professor can't just clone him like he was going to with that dumb dog of Fry's, right? It's not like Fry would be gone forever."

"I'm sorry, Bender," the Professor answered. "But Fry's already been brought back once. With his unique brain, he can't have his brain waves duplicated again. It was sheer dumb luck the last time when I used stem cells on all of you. If I cloned him, all there would be is his body."

"So it wouldn't really be him," Leela said, tearfully absorbing the knowledge herself.

They continued waiting, and time passing so slowly made Bender think how long Fry had been frozen, and how well he fit into the future. He thought back to the day they'd met. If it hadn't been for Fry, he would have gone through with committing suicide. It had been Fry who had gotten him to go against the limits in his own programming. Then there had been that moment Bender had never expected.

 _You really want a robot for a friend?_

 _Yeah, ever since I was six._

While not exactly slaves, it was true robots were seen as second class citizens in many ways. Often they were seen as only tools. Bender's uncle had received a burial, but often robots were simply scrapped when they were broken beyond repair. True friendships between a human and a robot were about as common as a friendship between a human and a toaster.

Bender smiled slightly remembering when Fry and Leela had celebrated Robanuka for him even knowing he'd made it up, just to show him they cared about him robot or not. There was the time Fry had been so jealous when Bender had been a werecar destined to drive over his best friend. Bender, not knowing what he was doing, had tried to drive over Leela instead. The robot cared about Leela too, but he'd always been closer with Fry.

"If I had it to do over again, buddy, if I could choose, I'd drive over you every single time!" Bender whimpered.

And of course, the ultimate time Fry proved Bender being a robot made no difference to their friendship was today. Fry could have chosen to only save one of them. He would have been able to get clear of the globe himself then. He might have only chosen to save the human. But Fry had proven he cared about robot life just as much as human life. He couldn't choose between them.

 _Dammit Fry why did you have to be so noble and caring? Why couldn't you be more like me, Bender?_

His thoughts were broken when Dr. Cahil came out. None of them had ever seen her look so serious.

"You can see him now," she told him. "But he won't know you're there. It's too soon to say if he'll ever wake up again."

There was a collective cry at that, and they all hurried to Fry's side. Bender looked at his fallen friend, drops of oil coming from his eyes.

"Whenever I said 'kill all humans,' I always whispered 'except one.' Fry was that one," he sobbed. "And I never told him so."

Leela gasped as that reminded her of something. In her dream, when she'd been in a coma from the sting of the space bee, she'd dreamed Bender had said exactly that.

"Bender, maybe we can help him after all! Fry kept talking to me when I was in a coma. That helped me wake up when the doctors thought nothing else would. We'll keep taking to him. It's worth a try, anyway."

The robot looked back at Fry and vowed he would stay there talking to Fry until he woke up, however long it took. And he _would_ wake up. Bender would not accept anything else.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: My apologies to TheSufferingAuthor, who goes by he/him. My thanks to LadyBender who has reviewed every chapter. Hope you keep enjoying this:)

Both Bender and Leela stayed with Fry long after the others went home. They recounted past times, and Bender tried to tell himself that Fry was responding. He was sure when they brought up some funny memory Fry seemed to smile a bit, even if there was no change in Fry's vital signs. He wouldn't let himself see that there was no real indication Fry could hear him.

Finally Leela couldn't stay awake anymore. She drifted off to sleep in mid sentence, talking to Fry about the time when they'd gone to Robot Hell to save Bender. Bender sniffled at the memory. What other robot could say he had friends who would literally go to hell for him. He shook Leela awake.

"You go on home, Leela. I'll stay with him."

Leela shook her head. "He might need me."

"Hey, he's got me here. You're just snoring anyway."

Leela hated to leave Fry, but of they were going to keep talking to him, she did need her sleep.

"All right Bender, but make sure you shut down for a bit when you need to. Or at lest have something to drink." Bender had been not drinking since Fry had been hurt. The only time she'd ever seen Bender get deliberately sober was when he found out he couldn't stay with Fry in their new apartment. He'd even been willing to cut off his antenna to be with Fry. No matter how cold he acted, anyone who knew Bender knew how much he really did care about him.

Once Leela was out the door, Bender let himself open up more than he would have in front of her.

"You just keep listening to me and wake up, buddy," Bender told him. "I could never say this in front of anyone, but I love you. I mean not in a robosexual way or anything, but it's like you're my brother from another factory. So you're going to pull through this. You' never leave behind Leela or me. Right? RIGHT?"

There was no change in Fry's face, but the monitor seemed to show his heartbeat was a little steadier.

"Don't worry, Fry. I'm not going anywhere. Just keep listening to me."

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The next morning, Leela came in to find Bender with five o' clock rust and a magnet stuck to his head, which was forcing him to sing.

"Froggy went a courtin' and he did ride uh huh. Froggy went a courtin' and he did ride-."

Leela pulled the magnet from his head.

"Bender I thought you were going to shut down for a bit. Look at you. You're a mess."

The robot looked at her tearfully.

"But what if no one is saying anything just when he needs to hear someone the most?"

Leela sighed and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, let me go get you a beer at least if you won't shut down. I'll be right back, and then I can take over for a bit. Fry wouldn't want you wrecking yourself like this." She wiped a tear from her eye, thinking how Fry was always sacrificing himself for others. Bender groaned when she left. He was too emotionally drained to even think of anything more to say to Fry. He'd been talking all night, and the whole nightmare of Fry being so close to death had shattered him. He stuck the magnet back on his head. At least it would keep him talking until he got a beer in him.

"She'll be riding six white horses when she comes-."

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Fry wasn't sure where he was. It seemed to be Old New York, but in the time he'd been born in, not the ruins it was now. How did he get back there? He was at a parade. He'd never liked those. Giant balloons scared him. Yet from somewhere he heard Bender talking to him. No, singing to him. And somehow they didn't seem so scary.

Wait. What was Bender doing in this century? And where was his voice coming from? Fry looked around, and saw what he thought was Bender on the other side of the street. Then he saw a giant globe rolling towards his robot friend. No! He had to save him!

He ran across the street, intending to push Bender out of the way. Before he could though, everything disappeared. He was floating somewhere. There were only stars around him. Ahead of him, voices were talking to him. He couldn't make out the words, but he knew the voices. His parents. Yancy. He even heard Seymour's barking! He was about to go towards them, but then he heard Bender.

Something was wrong with Bender. Fry was sure of that. He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure Bender was somewhere close. He just had to find him. Bender wasn't singing the way he normally did. He was singing like he did when he had a magnet on him. Fry could tell something was making him suffer. He couldn't go to his family when Bender needed him. If only he could tell just where Bender was.


	4. Chapter 4

Leela was almost as worried about Bender as about Fry. It had been weeks now, and there had been no change. The doctors had gone from saying Fry was just resting and healing to saying it didn't look good. Bender still refused to accept that. He'd actually physically thrown a doctor out in a sober stupor.

"Don't tell me he isn't going to wake up!" he'd shouted, slamming the door in the doctor's face. That was when Leela knew she had to take a hold of Bender.

"I know how hard this is," she told him softly. "But the doctors are just telling us what they believe is true."

"Well I don't believe it," Bender sobbed. "You believe he'll wake up, don't you Leela?"

She wouldn't have dared shatter his hope, but the truth was she didn't believe it just then. After this many weeks? It was highly unlikely. She knew Fry had never given up when the doctors thought she would never wake up again though. She couldn't give up on him either.

"I believe he'll never give up if it means staying with us," she told him. "And I know you talking to him helped- helps- keep him going. But what he really needs is for you to be able to keep functioning. If you want to help him, Bender, go back to Planet Express and get the beer Fry and I left there. Drink it, and then go to your place and power down for awhile. Come back refreshed, and maybe the boost in your energy will be enough to help finally wake him up."

She wasn't sure she believed that, but she'd have said anything to get Bender to rest up just then. He was becoming a problem to the doctors, and that wasn't going to help Fry. Luckily Bender nodded in agreement. If that would really help Fry, he'd do it. He still hesitated, looking at Fry before going over and taking his hand.

"I'll be back, soon, buddy. You be here when I get back, all right?" Then he looked at Leela. "You promise you won't stop talking to him until I'm back?"

She nodded. "I promise, Bender. I'll keep talking to him. I won't stop until you're back."

Bender slowly left, looking at Fry several times on the way out. Leela would keep her promise, even if she didn't really believe it would work anymore.

"Fry, if you can hear me, we need you. Bender's a mess without you. And you and I have too many turned down dates to make up for. I wish now I'd have taken you up on every one of them from the beginning. You're a sweet guy, Fry, even if you can be an idiot. You loved me, one eye and all. Remember how mad you were when I had that surgery? Remember when you had those parasites that turned you into my dream guy but got rid of them so you'd know if I loved the real you or them?" She shook slightly. "It's the real you, Fry. I love the real you, just like you love the real me. Now prove it and don't give up!"

The monitor showed his heartbeat grow a little stronger. Maybe, Leela thought, just maybe he had a chance yet.

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Bender staggered to the Planet Express office, easily finding the beer there. Honestly he didn't care if he was drunk or sober, but he decided to at least try to keep himself up for Fry's sake. He downed the beer, and started to feel better. He knew he really should shut down for a bit, but the sooner he got back to Fry, the better. The beer was already helping.

"Awe, who am I kidding?" he moaned. "I can't keep up like this, and if I don't, I'll let Fry down. I could lose him."

He wished he could feel the energy he felt that time he was forced to party because he was powered by one of the Professor's doomsday devices. Wait. The Professor had a whole collection of doomsday devices! He wouldn't even miss one if Bender happened to steal it and used it to keep powered for Fry's sake!

"I'm coming Fry!" Bender shouted. Nothing would keep him from talking to Fry until he woke up now!


End file.
